Arctic Circle Assembly 2016The Fletcher School at Tufts University and Iceland Ocean Cluster House are organizing a panel at this year’s Arctic Circle Assembly about recent advances in Blue Technology (BlueTech).

Entitled “BlueTech Innovation for a Developing Arctic,” the panel promises to bring BlueTech leaders from across the public sector, private sector, and academia.

“It is my pleasure to expand cooperation between the Fletcher School and the Iceland Ocean Cluster House,” said Professor Rockford Weitz, Director of the Fletcher School’s Maritime Studies Program and chair of the panel. “The common challenges that face us in the maritime domain are only going to get more dire as time goes by. We could not ask for a better partner in this endeavor than the Iceland Ocean Cluster.”

The Iceland Ocean Cluster House was quick to return the praise. “We are proud of our collaboration between the Ocean Cluster and the Fletcher School,” said Thor Sigfusson, Founder of the House. “Commercial BlueTech developments only come from effective partnership between practitioners and academic institutions. This panel will be an excellent opportunity for the world’s leading BlueTech experts to discuss how these developments can apply in the Arctic.”

Beyond the Fletcher School and Iceland Ocean Cluster House, the BlueTech panel will also feature representatives from other BlueTech organizations. These include the Institute for Global Maritime Studies, an education non-profit that seeks practical solutions to global maritime challenges, the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavik University, and Blue Water Metrics Inc, a scientific non-profit that crowdsources ocean health data.